Table of Contents
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ČENGĪZ KHAN
David O. Morgan
(Mong. Chinggis), probably born in 1167 in northeastern Mongolia, d. 1227, founder of the Mongol empire, the most extensive land empire known to history. Čengīz’s achievement, though hardly positive from the point of view of Persia, was by no means wholly a military and a destructive one. In the 1250s, a relatively coherent Mongol kingdom, the Il-khanate, was set up under Čengīz’s grandson Hülegü.
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CENSORING AN IRANIAN LOVE STORY
Sara Khalili
the first novel published in English by noted modernist writer Shahriar Mandanipour.
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CENSORSHIP
Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak
(sānsūr) in Persia; censorship has been exercised in most societies, including Persia, by the religious establishment, by the political authority, and by unofficial groups.
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CENSUS
Firuz Tawfiq, Daniel Balland
(Pers. sar-šomārī). No census for the purpose of ascertaining the population and acquiring statistical data was taken in Persia until the present century.
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CENSUS i. In Iran
Fīrūz Tawfīq
No census for the purpose of ascertaining the population and acquiring statistical data was taken in Persia until the present century, but information about numbers of persons or families was sometimes collected for the purpose of fixing tax dues or conscript quotas.
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CENSUS ii. In Afghanistan
Daniel Balland
The first national census of Afghanistan was not conducted until 1979, but the idea of such a survey had already taken root during the reign of Šēr-ʿAlī Khan in the 19th century, due to new taxation regulations.
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CENTRAL ASIA
Multiple Authors
This series of articles covers Central Asia.
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CENTRAL ASIA i. Geographical Survey
EIr
The central expanse of the Asian continent, the land mass situated approximately between 55° and 115° E and 25° and 50° N, comprises two geographically distinct areas.
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CENTRAL ASIA ii. Demography
Richard H. Rowland
The combined population of the Uzbek, Kirgiz, Tajik, and Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republics totals more than 30 million people, one tenth of the population of the Soviet Union.
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CENTRAL ASIA iii. In Pre-Islamic Times
Richard N. Frye
The main evidence for the history of Central Asia before the coming of Islam comes from archeological excavations, while written sources contain little information.
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CENTRAL ASIA iv. In the Islamic Period up to the Mongols
C. E. Bosworth
In early Islamic times Persians tended to identify all the lands to the northeast of Khorasan and lying beyond the Oxus with the region of Turan, which in the Šāh-nāma of Ferdowsī is regarded as the land allotted to Ferēdūn’s son Tūr.
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CENTRAL ASIA v. In the Mongol and Timurid Periods
Bertold Spuler
At the death of Čengīz (Chinggis) Khan in 624/1227 the territory he had conquered was divided between his sons.
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CENTRAL ASIA vi. In the 16th-18th Centuries
Robert D. McChesney
In the 16th-17th centuries Central Asia, including Transoxania, Greater Balḵ, and Ḵᵛārazm, witnessed a neo-Chingizid (Jochid) political revival, spearheaded by the ʿArabshahid/Shibanid (Shaibanid) lineage in Ḵᵛārazm and the Abulkhairid/Shibanid and Toqay-Timurid lines in Transoxania and Greater Balḵ. In the main, political life was shaped by the neo-Chingizid appanage system of state and its internal dynamic.
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CENTRAL ASIA vii. In the 18th-19th Centuries
Yuri Bregel
By the beginning of the 12th/18th century Central Asia was in a state of a deepening political and economic crisis.
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CENTRAL ASIA viii. Relations with Persia in the 19th Century
Abbas Amanat
The question of Central Asia in the 13th/19th century, from the Persian point of view, was a prominent one not only because of Persian territorial claims over Marv, Ḵīva, Saraḵs, and other peripheral regions, but also because of the threat of the Turkmen frontier tribes of Tekka, Yomūt, and Gūklān to the security of Khorasan, Astarābād, and Māzandarān.
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CENTRAL ASIA ix. In the 20th Century
Edward Allworth
Technology brought by the Russian military and the colonial administration from Europe included advanced arms and material, as well as railroad, telegraph/telephone, and printed communication.
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CENTRAL ASIA x. Economy Before the Timurids
Peter B. Golden
Climate and geography have, of course, in large measure determined economic pursuits in pre-industrial times.
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CENTRAL ASIA xi. Economy from the Timurids until the 18th Century
Robert D. McChesney
The economy of Central Asia after the fall of Central Asia to the descendants of Čengīz Khan and during their rule was centered on agriculture, but with important contributions from pastoralism, especially the breeding and export of horses.
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CENTRAL ASIA xii. Economy in the 19th-20th Centuries
Ian Matley
When the Russians arrived in Central Asia in the 1860s they found a predominantly agrarian economy. The main grain crops were wheat, barley, and sorghum.
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CENTRAL ASIA xiii. Iranian Languages
Ivan M. Steblin-Kamenskij
Central Asia was the ancient homeland of the Iranians and therefore also of the Iranian languages.
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CENTRAL ASIA xiv. Turkish-Iranian Language Contacts
Gerhard Doerfer
Three Turkish languages came together in Central Asia, the territory covered by the modern Turkmen, Uzbek, Kazakh, Kirghiz, and Tajik SSRs, excluding Chinese Turkestan: 1. the Uighur or Eastern Turks, 2. the Oghuz, speaking Khorasani Turkish, 3. and the Kipchaks
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CENTRAL ASIA xv. Modern Literature
Keith Hitchins
Central Asian literatures in the twentieth century have developed under diverse influences. Beside classical and modern Persian literature and the poetic traditions and folklore of the Central Asian peoples themselves, Russian thought and letters have been predominant.
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CENTRAL ASIA xvi. Music
Walter Feldman
In modern times Central Asia as a musicological unit can be defined as the area extending from Afghanistan north of the Hindu Kush, all of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan in the west, Kirgizia and Chinese Turkestan in the east, and Kazakhstan in the north.
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CENTRAL DIALECTS
Gernot L. Windfuhr
designation of a number of Iranian dialects spoken in the center of Persia, roughly between Hamadān, Isfahan, Yazd, and Tehran, that is, the area of ancient Media Major, which constitute the core of the western Iranian dialects.
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Mark J. Gasiorowski
When the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was established in September 1947, its predecessors had been operating in Persia for a number of years.
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CENTRAL TREATY ORGANIZATION
Joseph A. Kechichian
(CENTO), a mutual defense and economic cooperation pact among Persia, Turkey, and Pakistan, with the participation of the United Kingdom and the United States as associate members.
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ČERĀḠ
Mahmoud Omidsalar
lamps. Various kinds of lamps were used in Persia before the introduction of electric light. The simplest and cheapest was the čerāḡ-e mūšī “mouse lamp,” so called probably because of its small size and poor light.
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ČERĀḠ KHAN ZĀHEDĪ
Roger M. Savory
b. Shaikh Šarīf, a descendant of Shaikh Zāhed Gīlānī, the celebrated moršed (spiritual director) of Shaikh Ṣafī-al-Dīn, the eponymous founder of the Safavid order (Ṣafawīya); hence Čerāḡ Khan was also known as Pīrzāda.
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ČERĀḠ-ʿALĪ KHAN SERĀJ-AL-MOLK ZANGANA
Denis M. MacEoin
(d. after 1281/1864-65), a leading government official during the early reign of Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah.
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ČERĀḠ-E DEHLĪ
Sharif Husain Qasemi
(b. at Avadh, ca. 675/1276-77; d. at Delhi, 18 Ramażān 757/14 September 1356), the title of Shaikh Naṣīr-al-Dīn Maḥmūd, the last of the five great early saints of the Indian Češtī order (see češtīya).
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ČERĀḠ-E HEDĀYAT
J. R. Perry
(“lamp of guidance”), a monolingual Persian dictionary by the Indo-Muslim poet and scholar Serāj-al-Din ʿAli Khan Ārzu.
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ČERĀḠĀNĪ
Mahmoud Omidsalar
(also čerāḡān, čerāḡbānī, čerāḡbārān), the decoration of buildings and open spaces with lights during festivals and on occasions like weddings, coronations, royal birthdays, circumcision ceremonies, and so on.
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ČERĀḠHĀ RĀ MAN ḴĀMUŠ MIKONAM
Elham Gheytanchi
(I turn off the lights, Tehran, 2001), the first and most acclaimed novel by Zoya Pirzad (Zoyā Pirzād, b. Abadan, 1952), and the second to be penned by an Iranian-Armenian writer, after Ālice Ārezumāniān’s Hama az yek (All from one,Tehran, 1963).
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ČERĀM
Pierre Oberling
or ČORŪM, a small tribal confederacy (īl) inhabiting the dehestān of Čerām, in the Kūhgīlūya region, in southwestern Persia.
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CERAMICS
Multiple Authors
Ceramics in Persia from the Neolithic period to the 19th century.
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CERAMICS i. The Neolithic Period through the Bronze Age in Northeastern and North-central Persia
Robert H. Dyson
The ceramic tradition of northeastern Persia developed in parallel but distinct sequences in the Gorgān lowlands and the Dāmḡān highlands, including the parts of the Atrak region adjacent to both.
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CERAMICS ii. The Neolithic Period in Northwestern Persia
Mary M. Voigt
The initial occupation of Persian Azerbaijan by farming groups took place in the second half of the 7th millennium B.C.E. The best known site of this period is Hajji Firuz (Ḥājī Fīrūz) Tepe, located in the Ošnū-Soldūz valley and approximately contemporary with Hasanlu X (ca. 6000-5000 B.C.E.).
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CERAMICS iii. The Neolithic Period in Central and Western Persia
Peder Mortensen
Present knowledge is based primarily on evidence from three excavated sites and from surveys carried out southwest of Harsīn, on the Māhīdašt plain, and in the Holaylān valley.
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CERAMICS iv. The Chalcolithic Period in the Zagros Highlands
Elizabeth F. Henrickson
The Zagros Chalcolithic may be divided into Early, Middle, and Late subperiods. Within each several distinctive regional assemblages are known in varying archeological detail.
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CERAMICS v. The Chalcolithic Period in Southern Persia
Thomas W. Beale
The most fully excavated corpus of ceramics from the Chalcolithic of southern Persia comes from Tal-i Iblis and Tepe Yahya. Extensive surface collections by Sir Mark Aurel Stein in Baluchistan and more recently have provided important supplementary material.
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CERAMICS vi. Uruk, Proto-Elamite, and Early Bronze Age in Southern Persia
William M. Sumner
Lapui common ware consists of a red paste tempered with rather coarse black grit. It is not as well fired as the fine ware, and frequently the sherds reveal an unoxidized gray core.
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CERAMICS vii. The Bronze Age in Northwestern, Western, and Southwestern Persia
Robert C. Henrickson
During the 3rd millennium BCE there were two major ceramic traditions in northwestern Persia, shifting ceramic traditions in central western Persia, and polychrome ware in northern Susiana.
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CERAMICS viii. The Early Bronze Age in Southwestern and Southern Persia
Elizabeth Carter
The ceramic repertoire of the 2nd millennium B.C.E. in Ḵūzestān is dominated by plain buff-ware forms, the development of which can be traced through approximately 1,000 years, with four major subdivisions. The most common and long-lived forms are illustrated in this article.
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CERAMICS ix. The Bronze Age in Northeastern Persia
Serge Cleuziou
Archeologists have traditionally linked the appearance of burnished gray wares at Tepe Hissar (Ḥeṣār) and Tureng (Tūrang) Tepe in Gorgān during the second half of the 4th millennium b.c., and their possible diffusion westward in the first half of the 2nd millennium.
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CERAMICS x. The Iron Age
Robert C. Henrickson
The pottery of Iron Age Persia presents a vast array of problems, not least the huge area and long span of time that must be taken into consideration.
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CERAMICS xi. The Achaemenid Period
Remy Boucharlat and Ernie Haerinck
Although information on architecture and sculpture at major Achaemenid sites in Persia is plentiful, knowledge of the pottery of this period is almost totally lacking.
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CERAMICS xii. The Parthian and Sasanian Periods
Remy Boucharlat and Ernie Haerinck
the distribution pattern of pottery characterized by a wide range of different techniques and styles was quite complex, probably owing to diverse environments that have traditionally been reflected in major differences in the material culture of Persia.
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CERAMICS xiii. The Early Islamic Period, 7th-11th Centuries
David Whitehouse
Early Islamic pottery has been found in two main regions of Persia: Ḵūzestān and the Persian Gulf and the Persian plateau, including Khorasan. Study of all Islamic pottery of the first four hundred years has been dominated by the finds from Sāmarrā in Mesopotamia.
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CERAMICS xiv. The Islamic Period, 11th-15th centuries
Ernst J. Grube
A large variety of pottery types from different parts of the country has been attributed to this general period, notably incised and slip-carved earthenwares, which have been published under a variety of labels, as proper attributions have so far been impossible.
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CERAMICS xv. The Islamic Period, 16th-19th centuries
Yolande Crowe
Although several European travelers to Persia in the 17th century reported active potteries at some cities, there are no detailed records that would assist in attributing specific pieces surviving from the rule of the Safavid dynasty (1501-1732) to any one of them.
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CEREALS
Cross-Reference
See under individual cereals.
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ČERĪK
Willem Floor
(also jerīk, from Mongol tserig “warrior[s]”), originally troops sent by an individual or camp (yort) to serve in the royal army.
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ČERKES
Cross-Reference
See ČARKAS.
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CERULLI, Enrico
Filippo Bertotti
(born Naples, 15 February 1898; died 1988), Italian orientalist and diplomat.
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CERVIDAE
Cross-Reference
See ĀHŪ.
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CEŠT
C. Edmund Bosworth
a small settlement on the north bank of the Harirud and to the south of the Paropamisus range in northwestern Afghanistan, lying approximately 100 miles upstream from Herat in the easternmost part of the modern Herat welāyat or province.
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ČEŠTĪYA
Gerhard Böwering
the name of an influential Sufi order in India, derived from the name of the village of Češt.
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CHAARENE
Rüdiger Schmitt
(Gk. Chaarēnḗ), in Achaemenid times one of the easternmost Iranian provinces and the one closest to India.
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CHAGHATAY LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
Gerhard Doerfer
Of all the Turkic languages Chaghatay enjoyed by far the greatest prestige. For instance, the khans of the Golden Horde and of the Crimea, as well as the Kazan Tatars, wrote in Chaghatay much of the time.
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CHAGHATAYID DYNASTY
Peter Jackson
name given to the descendants of Čengīz Khan’s second son Čaḡatai, who reigned in Transoxania until ca. 771/1370 and in parts of Turkestan down to the 11th/17th century.
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CHALAVID DYNASTY
Cross-Reference
See ĀL-E AFRĀSĪĀB.
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CHALCOLITHIC ERA
Elizabeth F. Henrickson
in Persia; chalcolithic is a term adopted for the Near East early in this century as part of an attempt to refine the framework of cultural developmental “stages” (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron Ages) and used by students of western European prehistory.
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CHALDEANS
Muhammad Dandamayev
(Kaldu), West Semitic tribes of southern Babylonia attested in Assyrian texts from the early 9th century B.C.
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CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, INDUSTRIES, AND MINES OF PERSIA
Ahmad Ashraf
a national federation of local chambers and syndicates created in Esfand 1348 Š./March 1970 through the merger of various local chambers of commerce and the national chamber of industries and mines of Iran.
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CHAMBER of GUILDS
Ahmad Ashraf
(Oṭāq-e aṣnāf), a federation of various guilds formed in 1350 Š./1971 under the “guild-organization act” (Qānūn-e neẓām-e ṣenfī) in most urban centers.
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CHAMBERLAIN
Cross-Reference
See ḤĀJEB.
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CHAMPION, JOSEPH
Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak and Estelle Whelan
(1750-ca. 1813), English poet and translator. His three books devoted to Persian literature were all first published in India. The earliest contains English odes in imitation of the poems of Ḥāfeẓ, mostly on the theme of wine and drinking.
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CHĀNGĀ ĀSĀ
Mary Boyce and Firoze M. Kotwal
an eminent Parsi layman who lived in the 15th-16th centuries A.D. at Navsari in Gujarat.
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CHARACENE and CHARAX
John Hansman
(Spasinou) in pre-Islamic times; Characene is the name Pliny gives for the later region of Mesene (called Mēšān or Mēšūn in Middle Persian, Maysān/Mayšān in Syriac, and Maysān in Arabic) in southernmost Mesopotamia, which formed a political district of that name in the Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian periods.
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CHARAX
A. Shapur Shahbazi
town in the Seleucid and Parthian province of Rhagiana, the area around modern Ray.
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CHARCOAL
Willem Floor
carbonized wood and other vegetal material, an important household and industrial fuel in Persia and Afghanistan.
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CHARDIN, Sir JOHN
John Emerson
(born Paris, 16 November 1643, died Chiswick, London? 5 January 1713), an Huguenot jeweler who traveled extensively in Asia and wrote the most detailed foreign account of the Persia of his time.
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CHARES of MITYLENE
Rüdiger Schmitt
Greek historiographer, who participated in Alexander’s expedition and wrote “Stories about Alexander” (Perì Aléxandron historíai), of which fragments remain.
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CHARIOT
William W. Malandra
chariots in ancient Iran were light horse-drawn, two-wheeled vehicles designed for speed and maneuverability in battle and races.
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CHARITABLE FOUNDATIONS
Maria Macuch; John R. Hinnells, Mary Boyce, and Shahrokh Shahrokh
(MPers. ruwānagān lit. “relating to the soul”), pious endowments to benefit the souls of the dead, as specified by the individual founders. i. In the Sasanian period. ii. Among Zoroastrians in Islamic times.
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CHARMS
Mahmoud Omidsalar
originally verbal formulas recited to prevent or ward off potential harm by magical power but now also denoting written and even talismanic magic.
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CHARON OF LAMPSACUS
Rüdiger Schmitt
Greek historiographer, son of Pythocles or Pythes.
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CHARPENTIER, JARL
Bo Utas
(Hellen Robert Toussaint; b. 17 December 1884, d. 5 July 1935), Swedish Indologist, Indo-Europeanist, and Iranist, born in Gothenburg as the son of an army officer.
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CHASE
Cross-Reference
See HUNTING IN IRAN.
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CHASE, THORNTON
Moojan Momen
(b. Springfield, Mass., 22 February 1847), regarded by Bahais as the first American Bahai and the first Bahai of the West.
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CHAVANNES, EMMANUEL-ÉDOUARD
Werner Sundermann
(b. Lyons, France, 5 October 1865, d. Fontenay-aux-Roses, 29 January 1918), French sinologist who also contributed to the study of Iranian history and religions.
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CHEESE
Daniel Balland
In Persia and Afghanistan both nomadic pastoralists and sedentary peasants make the same basic kinds of domestic cheese. The only clear distinction is between acid and rennet cheeses, both made from mixed milks, except in Gīlān; there acid cheeses are usually prepared from cow’s and buffalo’s milk and rennet cheeses from ewe’s and goat’s milk.
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CHEMISTRY
Cross-Reference
See KĪMĪĀ.
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CHESS
Bo Utas, Moḥammad Dabīrsīāqī
a board game.
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CHESTER BEATTY LIBRARY
Wilfrid Lockwood, J. T. P. de Bruijn, Michel Tardieu
a collection of manuscripts, printed works, and artifacts, predominantly Oriental, assembled by Alfred Chester Beatty and opened to the public in Dublin in 1954.
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CH’IEN HAN SHU
Edwin G. Pulleyblank
(Qian Han shu) “History of the Former Han Dynasty,” a historical work which includes information on Iran.
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CHILAS
Karl Jettmar
township in the upper Indus valley in Pakistani-controlled Jammu and Kashmir, almost directly south of Gilgit and located on the new Karakorum highway between Pakistan and China.
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CHILDREN
Multiple Authors
This series of articles covers children and child-rearing in Iran and Iranian lands.
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CHILDREN i. Childbirth in Zoroastrianism
Jenny Rose
The Zoroastrian community has traditionally regarded marriage as having a threefold function: to propagate the human race, to spread the Zoroastrian faith, and to contribute to the victory of the good cause. The birth of a child furthers each of these objectives.
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CHILDREN ii. In Modern Persian Folklore
Mahmoud Omidsalar
Childbirth (zāymān, formal ważʿ-e ḥaml) in traditional Persian society, as in many other cultures, has generally been associated with magical practices and superstitions.
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CHILDREN iii. Legal Rights of Children in the Sasanian Period
Mansour Shaki
Although the corpus of Sasanian civil law was designed primarily to regulate matters among the lower classes, that is, the common people and slaves, the portions on adoption, inheritance, guardianship, and the like were equally applicable to the upper classes.
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CHILDREN iv. Legal Rights of Children in Modern Persia
Shirin Ebadi
A person is considered a minor (ṣaḡīr) until he or she has attained the physical and psychological growth necessary for full participation in society. When a child has reached the age of maturity (bolūḡ) determined by the law he ir she is considered mature (bāleḡ).
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CHILDREN v. Child Rearing in Modern Persia
Erika Friedl
The topic of child rearing (from birth to social adulthood in the mid-teens) is largely neglected in systematic research; there are no comparative studies of child-rearing practices among different ethnic and cultural groups in the country and only a few specialized studies.
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CHILDREN vi. Child Rearing Among Zoroastrians in Modern Persia
Janet Kestenberg Amighi
In the first half of the 13th/20th century most children were born at home with the assistance of the midwife. Immediately after birth the infant was bathed to cleanse it of polluting substances and wrapped in pieces of cloth called landog.
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CHILDREN vii. Children's Literature
EIr
Up to the Constitutional movement the standard curriculum of traditional Persian elementary schools (maktabs), which were privately operated, included the alphabet, the Koran, selections from popular Persian poetry and prose, and the traditional sciences.
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CHILIARCH
Philippe Gignoux
Greek title of one of the chief offices of state in Achaemenid Persia, presumably translated from Old Persian hazārapati-, attested in Greek as azarapateîs, explained as eisaggeleîs, that is, announcers or ushers.
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CHINESE TURKESTAN
Multiple Authors
(Sinkiang, Xinjiang), IRANIAN ELEMENTS IN.
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CHINESE TURKESTAN i. Geographical Overview
EIr
The eastern portion of the Central Asian land mass (see central asia i. geography), between 70° and 100° E and 25° and 45° N, encompasses Chinese Turkestan, now Sinkiang (Xin-jiang) Uighur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China.
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CHINESE TURKESTAN ii. In Pre-Islamic Times
Victor Mair and Prods Oktor Skjærvø
In antiquity the Tarim and Dzungar (Zungar, Jungar) basins lay at the crossroads of three main Eurasian routes including the Southern Silk Road, the Northern Silk Road, and a northern route passing between the Bogdo-ola (Bo-ko-tuo) range and the Tien Shans.
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CHINESE TURKESTAN iii. From the Advent of Islam to the Mongols
Isenbike Togan
Chinese influence in the Tarim basin began to wane after the battle of Talas (Ṭarāz) in 134/751, though Islam did not gain a permanent foothold there until much later.